A DANGEROUS ARMS BUILDUP

During the Eisenhower administration both the United States and the Soviet Union built up their nuclear arsenals to dangerously high levels. By August of 1953 both countries had exploded hydrogen bombs, which made the bomb used at Hiroshima looked primitive in comparison. Both countries carried out nuclear tests, although in 1958 Eisenhower and Khrushchev both agreed to suspend further atomic tests in the atmosphere.

The Soviets concentrated on building up their missile capabilities in this period, causing some Americans to fear that they were falling behind, and that a “missile gap” was developing. The startling fact that the Soviets might be ahead in technology was demonstrated by their 1957 launching of Sputnik, the first man-made satellite that could orbit the earth. Americans were shocked as they could look up in the sky and see the satellite whiz by (in the next two years many American high schools and colleges increased the number of math and science courses students had to take so that Americans could “keep up” with the Soviets). Even more troubling was the fact that American tests to create a man-made satellite had all failed.

A final humiliation for the United States came in May of 1960, when the Russians shot down an American U-2 spy plane. The pilot, Francis Gary Powers, was captured and taken prisoner by Soviet forces. For several days the Americans refused to admit that an American plane had even been shot down; Eisenhower eventually took full responsibility for the incident.

Toward the end of his term in office, Eisenhower warned of the extreme challenge to peace posed by the massive “military-industrial complex” that existed in America in the 1950s. The size of the military- industrial complex would certainly not decline in the 1960s.